Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'n' Roll by Marc Dolan

A vibrant biography of one of the greatest rock 'n' rollers, the America that made him, and the America he made.

This smart, incisive biography traces Bruce Springsteen’s evolution from a young artist who wasn’t sure what he wanted to say to an acclaimed musician with a distinctive vision for a better society. Brilliantly analyzing and evoking Springsteen’s output, Marc Dolan unveils the pulsing heart of his music: its deep personal, political, and cultural resonances, which enabled Springsteen to reflect on his experiences as well as the world around him. The book is now updated with a new chapter on The Promise, Wrecking Ball, and the 2012 tour.

Publishers Weekly

Like a good rocker, Dolan relies on three chords and a beat to propel a straightforward story of Springsteenâs life in rock ânâ roll and the ways that Springsteenâs music has shaped and been shaped by the history of our times.

Kirkus Reviews

It’s not surprising that a generation of academics raised on rock should combine a fan’s passion with a scholar’s analytical scrutiny in books that are neither conventional biography nor standard music criticism.

Christian Science Monitor

USA Today

Peter Ames Carlin, who has written the latest, simply titled Bruce, was lucky enough to get access to Springsteen's friends, relatives and professional and artistic colleagues, and to the Boss himself.The result is an astute, engaging account of the singer/songwriter's life and career â neither...

USA Today

Marc Dolan begins Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'n' Roll, his exhaustive biography of one of our most enduring pop heroes, with a disclaimer."No matter what some English professors might tell you," Dolan writes in the preface, "that slantwise story" â Springsteen's, and that of grea...

Washington Independent Review of Books

At concerts he encouraged attendees to support local food kitchens and clinics, slightly altering lyrics in his “My Hometown” to remind fans that “This is your hometown.” And in response to the misinterpretation of “Born in the U.S.A.” by Reagan and others, Springsteen added Edwin Starr’s powerf...

Denver Post

"Tunnel of Love" (1987) was a harrowingly honest work — as painful and explicit a study of a break-up as any pop record this side of Richard and Linda Thompson's "Shoot Out the Lights" — but after that there was little new work before the two patchy albums released on the same day in 1992, "Lucky...

https://bookpage.com

Springsteen emerged in an era dominated by introspective songwriters such as Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell, but although many of his songs were covertly autobiographical, what made Springsteen’s songs “personal” was not so much their specific autobiographical detail or insights as the vision t...

Chron.com

And while the Boss bookshelf is already groaning, with this doorstop-size (but never leaden-reading) tome, Marc Dolan has written the definitive look at Springsteen to date, surpassing Dave Marsh’s 2003 opus “Two Hearts.” Equal parts biography, musical analysis and dissection of Bruce as a pop cu...

Bookmarks Magazine

Combining political analysis, music history, and colorful storytelling, Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock ’n’ Roll reveals how a gifted, ambitious community college dropout achieved superstardom—and spent decades refining what he wanted his music to say.

Cape Ann Beacon

“Both impulses … were parts of Springsteen’s character,” Dolan explains, noting that after spending years having “out-Dylaned Dylan” he was, with “Born in the USA,” ready to “out-Elvis Elvis.”
There are a few personal revelations in the book, including a timeline of Springsteen’s relationship wi...